High Society

Photographs, 1897-1914

The fin-de-siecle aura of high society before the War is nowhere better exemplified than on the images created by the Lafayette Studio, the major fashionable photographers or the period. All the trappings of extravagant aristocracy, the impractical, intricate details for couture gowns, the improbable hourglass figures and the gleaming cars of the early motorists are frozen for posterity memorials of a society swept away with the Great War, whose self-confidence now appears more poignant than well-founded. This was the era of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, the Devonshire House Ball and the sinking of the Titanic.

This book, published to tie in with major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London, is a critical investigation of these photographic portraits of aristocracy and royalty, interpreting them within the context of their period and approaching them as emblematic of a society that was on the brink of collapse. As well as a visual treat, the reader can explore the various themes these pictures raise.